Play the Slate NewsQuiz

With Jeopardy! superchampion Ken Jennings.

Every Friday I’ll be testing your knowledge with 12 challenging questions on the week’s news events, big and small, including happenings in science, sports, politics, and culture both high and low. The questions are multiple-choice, and time is of the essence: You have 30 seconds to answer, and as the seconds tick away, the question’s point value drops from 50 all the way down to zero, so you’ll want to click on your answer as fast as you possibly can. There’s no penalty for an incorrect answer, so feel free to take a guess if your puny human brain fails you.

At the end of the quiz, you’ll be able to compare your score with that of the average contestant, as well as to the score of a Slate-sterwhom I’ve talked into taking the quiz on the record. This week’s contestant is Dahlia Lithwick, a Slate senior editor who writes about the courts and the law for Slate.

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Think you can ace my quiz and beat Lithwick? Good luck!

The Slate Quiz with quizmaster Ken Jennings

A new NASA-funded study has determined that modern civilization is headed for an "irreversible collapse." Society's doom, according to these scientists, will likely be a result of overtaxed natural resources and the growing gulf between haves and have-nots. I guess what I'm saying is, don't sweat it if your score on this week's news quiz isn't so great. In the long run, it probably won't matter.

Question 1 of 12

What minority group, which makes up 12 percent of the population of Crimea, boycotted Sunday's referendum on Russian annexation?

The Muslim Tatars, who have lived in the region since the 15th century, suffered decades of persecution and exile under Soviet rule. In spite of the Tatars' objections, Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to join Russia.

Question 2 of 12

A new study out of Montreal has found that women have to wait, on average, six minutes longer than men for what?

Women may receive slower treatment for being less assertive, the study suggests.

Question 3 of 12

Cancelled sponsorships and mayoral boycotts resulted in several Northeastern cities this week after gay groups were not allowed to join events celebrating what?

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, and Guinness were among those to join the boycotts.

Question 4 of 12

Last week a speech pathologist at Marquette University diagnosed whom with "rhotic replacement disorder"?

Dr. Steven Long called Scooby's speech issue "a phonological as opposed to a phonetic disorder, in that he shows a pattern of substituting and adding sounds in his speech rather than just distorting sounds."

Question 5 of 12

The Supreme Electoral Court ruled in favor of former guerrilla commander Salvador Sanchez Ceren becoming the new president of what country?

Question 6 of 12

A man in Bristol, England, got scammed by the online seller from whom he tried to buy a PlayStation 3. How is he getting his revenge?

Edd Joseph, who has an unlimited data plan, has sent his nemesis 22 complete plays so far, in the form of 17,424 texts.

Question 7 of 12

The Morning Glory was recovered by a team of Navy SEALs on Monday. What is the Morning Glory?

A Libyan militia had seized the ship, hoping to sell the oil on the black market.

Question 8 of 12

Astronomers stationed at the South Pole have observed a pattern of polarization of gravitational waves, providing the best evidence yet for what?

The New York Times called the evidence the "Big Bang's Smoking Gun" and "the signature of a universe being wrenched violently apart at its birth."

Question 9 of 12

In response to U.S. sanctions, Vladimir Putin's top aide replied that he "didn't need a visa" to access the only American things he liked. What topped the list?

"It's a big honor for me," said Vladislav Surkov. "The only things that interest me in the U.S. are Tupac Shakur, Allen Ginsberg, and Jackson Pollock."

Question 10 of 12

This week Parisians were only allowed to drive their cars on alternate days, in a new government response to what?

Paris has been blanketed by smog all week, Europe's worst pollution event since 2007.

Question 11 of 12

What sold for $2 million in the Chinese province of Zhejiang, in what might be a new world record?

The Tibetan mastiff is worth every penny, says its new owner, because it has "lion's blood."

Question 12 of 12

By this week, investigators into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had narrowed the search area down to 15 percent of what?

With an area of 30 million square miles, the search has covered roughly 15 percent of the surface of the entire globe, and 100 percent of CNN airtime.